Pastoral Reflections on Peace: Living In
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Cover Page Table of Contents Contents Article Book Highlight Fighter Verse New Members Whatever the trial, our gut tells us something is wrong. Pastoral Reflections on We aren’t supposed to be crushed by anxiety, beaten up Peace: Living in the by worry, or battered by loneliness. In the midst of a world that seems to know no peace, we are left longing “Nevertheless” for rest. LIVING IN THE “NEVERTHELESS” I’ll never forget one of the first speeches I ever gave. My Tis lack of peace is especially problematic for boss, a U.S. senator, had been asked to address the Christians. We’ve read enough of the Bible to know God inaugural meeting of a bioethics advisory commission he expects us to be at peace. Nearly every New Testament made possible. But he couldn’t attend. He sent me, a letter begins with a call for peace to mark our lives (Rom young staffer, in his place. 1:7; 1 Cor 1:3; 2 Cor 1:2; Gal 1:3; Eph 1:2; Phil 1:2; Col 1:2; 1 Tess 1:1; 2 Tess 1:2; 1 Tim 1:2; 2 Tim 1:2; A group of intimidating people filled the room: doctors, Titus 1:4; Philemon 1:3; 1 Pet 1:2; 2 John 1:3; 3 John lawyers, professors, and political professionals. I was a 1:15; Jude 1:2; Rev 1:4). novice. My nerves rattled as I sat there in my grey suit, beads of sweat gathering on my brow, overwhelmed by Te apostles called the church to know the peace of God the sense that I was in over my head. because they had seen the power of a peace-filled life. Even as the sword of persecution hung over its head, the I raced through my prepared remarks. Ten, before early church thrived: “So the church throughout all Judea anyone could respond, I nervously and awkwardly stood and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up, hoping that if I exited the room quickly no one would up” (Acts 9:31). Paul, who set himself up as an example, remember how it went. As I shuffled back to the office, I reminded the Christians in Philippi he knew how to live had no peace. at peace: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE to abound” (Phil 4:11-12). What I experienced that chilly, October day isn’t unusual. Everybody knows what it’s like to be uneasy, out-of-sorts, Paul and the first Christians followed in the footsteps of anxious, and afraid. From the soldier deployed on his first their Savior. Jesus suffered under the expectation of the mission to the salesman about to make his first pitch, crucifixion. He prayed for a way out, but he remained at we’ve all had to reckon with nerves that won’t calm down, peace with whatever the Father ordained: “Father, if you a heart beating out of our chest, and thoughts spinning are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not out of control. Everyone longs for peace; very few know my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). where to find it. Christians are supposed to live in the “nevertheless.” What comes to your mind when you think about the Scripture calls us to accept whatever God allows, to rest word peace? in whatever God sends, and confess with Samuel Rodigast, the seventeenth-century hymn writer: • Sitting in the shade on a warm, sandy beach with your favorite book in one hand and a cold drink in Whate’er my God ordains is right; the other? Tough now this cup, in drinking, • Your home, late at night, after all the kids are in bed May bitter seem to my faint heart, and nobody is demanding your attention? I take it all, unshrinking. • A month without another report of a mass shooting, suicide bomber, or drone strike? Each of us is called to live in the “nevertheless” by trusting • Going to work without worrying the boss is going to God in any and all circumstances. What makes this so yell at you, the vendor is going to fail you, or the hard, and how can we “walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16) in customer is going to abandon you? such a way that peace bursts forth more naturally? We all know life is full of disappointments. Whether Te answer is found in understanding the root of peace. large (war in the Middle East) or small (pain in our lower back), feelings of unrest seem woven into our daily lives. ! !1 | Perspective Contents Article Book Highlight Fighter Verse New Members THE ROOT OF PEACE Because the gospel is a message of peace (Acts 10:36; From Genesis to Revelation, the root of peace is the Eph 6:15), our biggest problem—God’s wrath—is atoning work of God. When we hear the word, “peace,” behind us. But there is more to peace than the end of we shouldn’t first think of being calm in the face of a God’s wrath. Te Christian who knows the root of peace speech or some other trial. As tempting as it might be, we will see branches of peace extending throughout his life. shouldn’t think first of the tranquil beach. We should Having been reconciled to a holy God, the Christian will think of God making a way for sinners to be reconciled find himself at peace with others and at peace with to him. himself. Peace, in the Old Testament, was given by God to those PEACE WITH OTHERS who came to him through the shed blood of the sacrificial Christians are called to live at peace with one another animals. No wonder some of those sacrifices were (Mark 9:50; Rom 12:18; 14:19; 1 Tess 5:13; Heb actually called “peace offerings” (Lev 3)! Te psalmist 12:14; James 3:18; 2 Pet 3:14). In fact, the peace we have rejoiced in these sacrifices, praying to the LORD, “you with God and with one another can’t be separated. It’s forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their impossible to be reconciled to God without his peace sin” (Psa 85:2). Looking at the temple, where God atoned spilling over into personal relationships. Notice how Paul for the sins of his people, the same psalmist saw “steadfast connected the two: love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psa 85:10). In other words, through the But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off blood of a lamb without blemish, God replaced wrath have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he with love, infidelity with faithfulness, sin with himself is our peace, who has made us both one and righteousness, and enmity with peace. has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and Peace, in the New Testament, is the gift the Father grants ordinances, that he might create in himself one new those who come to him through the shed blood of his man in place of the two, so making peace, and might Son. We all offended God, each and every one of us reconcile us both to God in one body through the (Rom 3:9-18). We all deserve God’s wrath because of our cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and sin. God, in his loving kindness, provided a way of escape. preached peace to those who were far off and peace to He delivered up Jesus “for our trespasses,” and he raised those who were near (Eph 2:13-17). him “for our justification” (Rom 4:25). Tose who were once God enemies, God now calls his friend. How is this Under the Old Covenant, the “law of commandments possible? Trough the blood of Christ. What is this and ordinances” privileged the Jews. Tey were God’s called? Peace. “Terefore, since we have been justified by special, chosen, uniquely loved people. Te nations were faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus their enemy. But, in Christ, the barrier between Jew and Christ” (Rom 5:1). Gentile has been dismantled. Just as the fall of the Berlin Wall united East and West Germany, so now the walls At its core, peace is not singing “Kumbaya” around a that divide humanity—ethnic, social, cultural, economic campfire with a dozen of your closest friends, going to —have been crushed under the weight of Christ’s work each day with the inner-confidence that all is well, atoning death and resurrection. Te church is now one or a tranquil feeling manufactured by 45 minutes of yoga. body. In Christ we are at peace with God and we are at Te root of peace is the objective reality that God has peace with one another. adopted you into his family as his precious son or daughter. Peace is the fact, solid as granite, that because What does this look like in your life? of Jesus’ work on the cross, every believer is “sanctified in Are you building relationships with non-Christians of Christ” who will “sustain you to the end, guiltless in the • other ethnicities, colors, and backgrounds with day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:2, 8). confidence God will build his church as a monument to his passion for peace? Te power of a tidal wave won’t be limited to the ocean Do you build discipling relationships with people from —it will eventually hit the shore.